Your Royal Highness,
Your Excellences, Honorary Deputy Secretary General, Chef de Cabinet, Distinguished Keynote speakers, Permanent Representatives, Ambassadors, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
As Permanent Representative of Hungary to the UN, member of the Steering Committee of the World Science Forum, and as a firm believer in the power of science and multilateralism, I am honoured to address You and open today’s high- level event.
I had the pleasure to be part of the preparation of the World Science Forum starting with the very first World Science Conference in 1999 initiated by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and UNESCO with the support of the Government of Hungary. Based on the success of this first event, the Forum evolved by now into one of the most important gatherings of the scientific sphere. Since 2013, it is being hosted every four year outside Budapest. For the first time it was hosted by a foreign partner, it was taken to Rio de Janeiro in 2013 with a great success.
Throughout the years, the organization of the Forum grew into a joint venture and common thinking by UNESCO, the International Council for Science (ICSU), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) and the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan.
At the end of this year, the Forum shall take place in Amman, Jordan focusing on the theme of Science for Peace. This topic encompasses the interlinkages of all policy areas that enable sustainable social development and inclusive economic growth that should contribute to peace and security around the globe. There is no peace without development, and there cannot be any development without peace. Yet science is often less tangible in the current diplomatic scene, even though it has a huge potential in conflict prevention and resolution through building bridges among different stakeholders.
Capitalizing the meaningful contribution of science to tackling the root causes of poverty and instability, as the most important underlying sources of conflict, crisis could be further reduced, or even eliminated. Prevention is therefore a priority for my country’s work in the United Nations. As Permanent Representative, I am co- moderating the dialogue under the auspices of the President of the General Assembly with Tajikistan on improving the integration and coordination of the UN’s work on implementing the water-related Sustainable Development Goals and targets. I am actively engaged in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in science, technology and innovation; as well as fighting human trafficking and modern day slavery. Here at the UN, we are at the forefront of mutually intertwined discussions, where we can indeed insure the link between decision-making and the operative levels. However, we can only make a difference, if we start getting out of the box.
Science is an integral part of Agenda 2030 and should be our ultimate avenue in this endeavour as an essential element in better understanding global challenges facing us, and identifying global responses we can jointly aim at.
The most important difference of the SDGs compared to the MDGs and at the same time the largest challenge and opportunity lies in bringing together the implementation of science-related goals with gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
Today a significant gender gap persists in science all over the world, including in technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This untapped potential of brilliant girls and women is a great loss of opportunity, both for women themselves and for the society as a whole. Gender equality should therefore be considered as a crucial mean to promote scientific and technological excellence.
Let me share some best practices from Hungary is this regard. The National Research-development and Innovation Strategy for the period 2013-2020, entitled “Investment in the Future”, establishes the priority of creating equal opportunities for women in the Research, Development and Innovation sector.
The Government of Hungary is committed to raising the profile of science and the Ministry of Human Capacities has recently announced a budgetary increase of 15 billion HUF in support of the scientific research activities for universities.
Another outstanding example is the Association of Hungarian Women in Science, a national network of researchers, professors and engineers supporting the advancement of women, increasing their participation in the scientific field and shaping public opinion in a positive way. The Association organizes programmes, assists individuals and organizations in writing tenders, and distributes awards to women showing excellent performance in their field of research. The Excellence Award is accorded each year by the Association to three female scientists in materials technology, biotechnology and space technology, with a special section for a female Roma researcher. The Association of Hungarian Women in Science aims to attract female high school students towards natural science and technology with the aim of redoubling the ratio of female students graduating from the technology, engineering and natural sciences faculties by 2020.
The Association has just recently organized a competition under my patronage for university students entitled SCI-ndicator in the field of communicating about their research area. The first prize of the contest was awarded to a second year computer science and engineering student from Vajdaság (Vojvodina), Serb-Hungarian
citizen Kristóf Muhi. His prize included a one-week stay in New York, hosted by the Permanent Mission of Hungary to the UN, during which he can become acquainted with the work of UN system and learn about the science-policy interface, including through participation at today’s Science for Peace event.
Kristóf has developed an application for smart phones that allows playing with the colored three-dimension logic game, Rubik’s Cube for blind and partially sighted persons.
In my view both the presence of Kristóf at our event today and the story of the Rubik Cube carry symbolic messages. The first is the role youth and especially young talents can play in our joint endeavor for a sustainable and peaceful future.
As for the story of the Cube, the young Professor of architecture Mr Erno Rubik created an object, the first prototype in Budapest back in 1974 that was not supposed to be possible. His solid cube twisted and turned and still it did not break or fall apart. With colourful stickers on its sides, the Cube got scrambled and that’s how the first Rubik’s Cube emerged. It took well over a month for Mr Rubik to work out the solution to his puzzle. Little did he expect that Rubik’s Cube would become the world’s best-selling toy ever and what a huge success it made!
With that, I would like to inspire you to think and act out of the box, motivated by the abstract of science and the talent of youth. That combined with our collective wisdom and experience should pave the way for closer cooperation among our countries and nations to do more on prevention, and thereby more in achieving peace and stability.
Let us take the great opportunity of the World Science Forum to realize that science-policy link and bring together people from the political, researcher and implementation level. Let us make the Forum’s topic a success story!
Your Royal Highness, Your Excellences, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for your kind attention!
